Twitter's chief operating officer Ali Rowghani was on hand for the discussion, and responded to reports of the company's lack of cooperation with the National Security Agency's internet surveillance program.

When asked about Twitter's refusal to participate in the PRISM surveillance program, Rowghani gave a measured response.

"I can’t really comment on any details of the matter, and we’re all at Twitter, you know, sort of very interested on how the story plays out," Rowghani said.

"One of the core values we have at the company is to defend and reflect the user’s voice, and we believe that tweets belong to the users that create them, and we have always tried to find the right balance between abiding by the law in any jurisdiction, and doing what’s right by our users," Rowghani said.

"But as far as the specifics of PRISM, or the issues with the NSA, I can’t really comment specifically," he said.

President Barack Obama's push back to criticism of the National Security Agency surveillance programs is that he has increased checks and balances, bringing the foreign surveillance courts into the process, for instance, and - he insists - looping in Congress.

"When it comes to telephone calls, every member of Congress has been briefed on this program," the president said Friday.

Here’s the problem with that: It is not true - every member of Congress has not been briefed on the phone data program.

Edward Snowden is a 29-year-old intelligence contractor, who revealed the extent to which the government is monitoring and keeping records of not just telephone calls, but also e-mails, internet searches, downloads and photos.

Snowden has been in Hong Kong staying in a hotel room since late May, according to The Guardian. There are reports that since his identity was revealedon Saturday, he has checked out of his Hong Kong hotel.

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